Saturday, April 24, 2021

Profiteering from vaccines funded by tax payers money

    Majority of the governments funded the research and development of the vaccines which have yielded positive results. The first thing to talk here is that the governments money is the tax payers money. Whatif the investments made by the government did not yield results? Well, the funding from for the various companies would have evaporated. All the infrastructure developed as a consequence would have been wasted. However, majority of the vaccines funded have been succesful. Lucky taxpayers, Ha. Let us now see what is happening after this success. Now, the corporations want to make profit out of it. 

    Either the governments are naive or are in bed with these corporations. When the government agreed to bear all the risks of failure, cant the government add another clause for success? The clause for success would be to produce and sell the vaccines on cost of production and distribution only. The distribution, can again be taken up by the government, if the corporations feel that it is not strong point. So, the cost of production of the vaccine should be the selling price of the vaccine.

    However, the corporations and governments have different ideas. The corporations, particularly pharmaceuticals are seeing a cash cow. Majority of the vaccines are based on some information of the crown of the virus. As the virus updates the constituents of the crown, the information provided by the vaccine into the body becomes outdated. So, for every major mutation wherein the chemical formula of the crown changes in a major way, the human body cannot identify it as a virus, so the corporations are free to now produce an updated vaccine with this updated chemical structure. This can be an ifinite loop. This money source will become something like water, which is abundantly available and available whenever you are thirsty. 

    Why am I now talking corporations and governments, Well, that is the correct way. In fact you can combine both these terms and you will not find any difference at all. Let me give you an example. One vaccine vendor states the cost of vaccine in a particular country. When there is a backlash from the public, what does the government do? Well it decided to absorb certain portion of the price stated by the corporation. This decision was taken in split second. Why, elections are under way and it can have an adverse effect on the results. No communication happened between the government and the corporation. No discussions held. Well, is the public happy. Yes, why not? But, this is not as easy as it appears. You see, the government does not receive money from the gods. Whatever, the government has decided to absorb is the money from the tax payers. It is as good as paying what the corporation was asking.

Now, what is the point of investing and supporting the entire excersize of design and development of the vaccine with public money and the same is sold to the public on profit. It is not wrong, if you have developed a comfort product. In this case you have produced a vaccine. This particular vaccine should be out of the profit strategy. You first ensure that you have enough people on the planet. Corporations and goverments dont exist in vaccum. They are agian people. But as the famous phrase goes "..Some people are more equal..". 

    The reason for profit has been touted as the inputs for increasing the outputs further. Instead of the profit margin, the government can decide whether this increase in production is justifiable. Instead, the government can support other manufacturers who already have the majority of the capabilities for producing such a vaccine by giving them just enough support to produce the vaccine. This will result in investment in that corporation and bring it upto a standard wherein it can be competitive. And, competition is always better.

Profiteering from a vaccine funded by the taxpayers money for the survival of the taxpayer is murder and nothing else.

Thursday, April 22, 2021

"Right to repair" has to come with "Ease of repair"

     I normally dont post links in my blog. They die over time and it is very difficult to link it again, if a reader wants the link again. However, these two links have to be mentioned and I am privileged to post the link. If any individual/company has any issues with me posting the link here. Kindly comment and appropriate action will be taken.

https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=nvVafMi0l68
https://invidious.snopyta.org/watch?v=-F-Wxj-v9-g

    The first link talks about "right to repair". The video is from Linus. One of the most prolific tech video producer I have come across. In this video, he talks about an initiative started by Louis, a crowd funded effort to argue "right to repair". The second video is a "Thank you" video from Louis. Between these two videos, the viewer will have a clear understanding of this "right". This right should be in the list of fundamental rights in any democratic nation. In this age of consumerism, right to repair, is what is going to save the customer and the planet. Many people dont know the real meaning of a "right". Let us first understand that. Let us talk about "Right to freedom of speech". What does this tell. Well, it just tells that you are free to talk your mind. So, what if you dont want to talk your mind. Well, this right has got you covered. You have the right to not talk your mind. The right tells that, if you want to talk, you can, if you dont want, then you are free not to talk. Let us put this explanation and draw parallel for the "right to repair".

    Let us assume that one consumer thinks that, any tech should not be repaired by the customer or on behalf of the customer by a third party. This action is part of "right to repair". If any other customer wants to carry out repairs, then he is also in this right. He is free to do so. If anybody thinks that no customer should be allowed to repair a gadget, the right to repair, applies to him also. He has the right to not get his gadget repaired. If anybody wants to carry out repairs, then this individual can. If this is clear, then as a consumer, you need not worry. If you are a rich person and instead of repairs, you would like a shiny new one, go ahead. If any others want to repair, then we are not damaging your chances of not repairing it. You are still free to pay huge money for a new one.

    I still remember my 1st pc, purchased in the year 2001. Every specific component was hand picked based on the money available. Any issue with the computer, I used to open up the complete chasis and try changing all the components and then one change would make the pc working again. Ring to 2021, Majority of the computers have soldered components. There were enterprising indivduals, who understood the complete schematics of the computer and started to de-solder the individual components and replace with newer ones. Yes, it is a niche market, but, it is still doable. 

    Now, what should the bigger companies do now. Well, bring it all within the processor die. What are we going to do about it, Well, I am blank as of now. The components on the die has provided the fastest bus for communication between the components, which was not achievable if the components are laid out on a Motherboard. But, this is a nightmare for the repair aficionados. Since all the major components of a computer are now in the processor die, you cannot upgrade your pc. If one component on the processor die, dies, the whole computer is as good as junk. For the re-soldering industry the only option is to remover the processor die and replace with a new one. But, this replacement will be exorbitantly high. How will the customer bear these costs. These costs might motivate the customer to just buy a new black box.

    Right to repair is one thing, capability to repair is one more thing. The big corporations are now on a path wherein, even if we do win the right to repair, it will be difficult for individuals and hobbyists to carry out repairs. The new products from Apple only have speakers and thermals outside the processor die. With right to repair, we should start a revolution for ease of repair also. Without ease of repair, there is no use of having right to repair. Let us wish that other technologically competitive individuals take up this aspect of "ease of repair" also. Otherwise the fight for "right to repair" will be laid waste.

Sunday, April 18, 2021

Please, with sugar on top, Wear a Mask

     Since the beginning of the pandemic I wanted to write about the way people go about wearing their mask. I came across a post on mastodon where a hotelier put out an ad with the heading "You are free to wear the mask or not at our establishment". To start with majority of we humans, have lost the art of empathetic thought. We either are in our own theoretical world or are so practical that we forgot the fellow human beings are also humans. The other humans just dwindle out from our thought. We have forgotten to value the other people's ideals. We have become self-centric. Now, the problem with this selfish attitude is it is not boding well in the present pandemic. In fact this facet is exposed to the highest.

    We have nay-Sayers for each and every issue in the world. Thought the ISS is beaming pictures of the earth 24 hours a day, we have nay-Sayers saying that the earth is flat. This number is not negligible and this number is highest in the richer nations with better education and information availability. Let us start with the farmer. Everything starts from the energy source, so let us start from here. The farmer is doing things which is natural and suddenly decides he is going to harvest his crop, pluck the fruit. He will not wash his hands. why? why not? He is free to do it. He thinks that all the micro organisms are good for the living beings. For him harmful and beneficial germs are the same. He does not know of any damage to anybody eating his food. Come on, How many have died of this? He would say that he did not eat it the proper way(You are not holding the iphone properly). It next goes to the storage. Here again, few operators are very particular about cleaning, while others are not and consider that this level of cleanliness is not required. They dont clean the containers, they dont wash their hands at all. Why, why not, they are free to do so arent they? You cannot find out whether all the operators of the stores are germ free while handling. This boils down to the operators only. And definitely in that crowd there will be nay-Sayers. 

    Now, the product goes to the processing industry, they have not cleaned their machinery since they started the facility. Why? They are bribing the testing crew. So what, they can clean the facility based on logic. Yes, they can, but they have their own logic. They see that nobody has reported sick because of their facility. If at all some die, what does it matter, it is a very small count. Now, let us come to the restaurant. Here again, the cleaners decide that they will clean, when they think that the containers have to be cleaned. Not before every time a dish is prepared. Why, why not? Let us come to the last level in this journey. 

    The customer. He walks in. He has not cleaned his hands, his shoes are dirty. He comes in and digs in all the while assuming that the entire chain of people responsible for him to have that meal have maintained utmost cleanliness. Why did he come to this particular place. He thought they are clean. Later he may fall sick. But he will not be able to attribute it to the food he had in the restaurant. Why, because he is not thinking about cleanliness and he is thinking that others will take care of it. He is thinking that the human hands have got magical cells which kill all the bad agents. So, what he does is crosses his hands on his shirt and thinks that they are clean. He thinks that food is clean by default. He thinks he fell ill, because for him falling ill is like sun rising and setting. routine.

    This pandemic is different. It has taken this nay-saying to a new level. There are theories stating that the virus beating capability is embedded in humans. Yes sir. It may be. But the capability of this immune system is varying from person to person. So, by experience if you have decided that you are the one blessed with such an immune system, We the weaker ones request you to please allow us a chance to survive this pandemic. Please, with sugar on top, wear a mask. You are saving many lives including yours. 

    There are no studies which prove that wearing a mask will reduce the oxygen intake. The human body knows how to increase the oxygen intake. It will make you breathe harder and breathe in longer. It will make you yawn. Wear a mask. For any infection to occur, the payload of the attacking micro-organism is a very important factor. Wear a mask to ensure that the payload of viruses you are breathing out is muted by the mask. This will give the lesser mortals an opportunity to survive that contact. You are a nay-Sayer and dont want to take a vaccine. All right, as we have discussed you are free to do so, until you are free to to do that. 

    But, no, you have to wear a mask. No, not any mask, a proper one. It should mute the amount of virus emanating from your breath. You never know, it might also limit the amount of virus payload you breathe in and might keep it just below the threshold limit of your immune system. It is a win-win situation. Use re-usable masks. Our planet is already full of these masks. Let us reduce the burden on our planet. Let us live to clean this planet and bring it back to its good old days. Let us give our children what we cherished. Let us not just talk about the good old days. Let us survive and re-create the same for our children.

Let us all, live. Wear a Mask, A proper one.

Wednesday, April 14, 2021

Agrarian Business

    What a perfectly bad time to be alive? A time at which we cannot adjudge the probability of any living being be alive. A time at which we have the most powerful computers which try to churn out weather data, but are unable to do the same to for the last mile of the living beings on earth. We are in the midst of a pandemic. We exactly know where it started. We exactly know how it was spread. We exactly know how the people who had the initial information stay quite and plan for the future to make use of this scenario. We are seeing a different world structure. The "diplomacy" word has become so complicated. The world, is in shambles.

    On one side we have the government of a country go and attack the agriculture industry which is the bread and butter of the majority of its residents. Instead of modernizing the agrarian sector, the government is hell bent on bringing corporate to the sector. Am I an economist, am I an agriculturist, am I a diplomat? No, None of these. I am a living being and I require food to be alive. So, yes, I should be interested what is happening in this sector. I should be interested in as much as the issues regarding the shortage of computer chips which has bought many of the industries to a stand still. Do the corporate have the agrarian experience which this big country which once was one of biggest economic power, which induced many emperors to come here and collect back the gold which they had paid for the artistic and the agrarian produce this country has produced. 

    Our agrarian industry is in shambles. Modernization has not reached this industry. Modernization tried to teach them shortcuts instead of the best practices. Modernization has destroyed the top soil in such a way that no crop can be grown without any chemicals/fertilizers. Modernization has failed to incorporate the experience of our hardworking farmers of yester years. There are only a handful of farmers who are striving by continuing with the practices laid out by their forefathers. There have been instances of educated people from cities going back to their agrarian roots and try to bring back the practices by our farmers from previous generations combining them with modern replacements ensuring that the chemicals used are minimal and every crop taken out is sustainable. 

    Vast tracts of land have lost the capability to grow anything. These vast expanse of land is waiting for the adjacent cities to grow so that it encapsulates this area. With this, agricultural land becomes residential land. But, until then the farmer can till the land, yes? No. The youngsters in the are are impressed by others going to the city to earn every day money or monthly money which is absent in the agrarian setup which they have been accustomed to. They go and do menial job which does not require any brain processing. If the youngster is at his agricultural land, he has to study the soil, he should study the weather, he should study the market, he should be smart. And then after all this, he wants that daily/monthly money which he knows cannot happen now. But, if he strives it might happen in an year or two. But by that time he would have earned that money now. Why wait for a couple of years. He dont know the disadvantage of working under others. It will be too late for him to recognize the freedom he had if he had continued with his agrarian plans. 

    The new crop of farmers want their crop to just grow. If there are issues put more fertilizers, more issues, more pesticides. If that dont work, the run towards the cities and do menial jobs. Ethics have been lost on the producer and the consumer. The consumer wants to alienate himself from the hardship of the producer. The producer dont care about the ill effects of his practises until his produce gets sold.

    On one side we have one country making the industry fertile for corporations, on the other side, there are countries which have already done this. Even these countries are not left alone. The bigger corporations are ready to take it to the next level. There have been examples of big corporations buying large tracts of agricultural land in the midst of a pandemic. This shows that these bigger ones know something which the present corporations dont know. In the midst of a pandemic a medical speech recognition company is bought for 20 billions USD. A person who dont know the first letter in the medical field, talks about the next pandemic. A philanthropist, through his non profit arm, ensures that the not for profit vaccine is smoothly transitioned to a money making machine. 

    Combine all this with the lack of interest shown by farmers. You have corporations which will then sell us doctored food. Food grown and altered as per the region and the class it is being sold. Time will come where food also will be assumed to be made like electronic gadgets. People dont know the issues associated with mining the minerals necessary for their gadgets until they have their shiny gadgets every spring. It will be the same for food. The time is not far away, where there will be presentations made about super food v1. We will all eat it. And then in the next presentation we will be told about the problems in the v1 food and we will be told that super food v2 will resolve all the issues v1 created in your body and then some improvements(In fact the issues to be resolved in v3) and so on.

    The pandemic on hand is awesome. It is affecting only the 99.99% of the population. The 0.01% is not bothered. They are going about their business while all the business of the 99.99% have tanked. Deaths have become mere numbers. Rules and regulations have been played with like it is childs play. The 99.99% dont know to believe the pandemic or not. The thing is if they believe, they have to stay indoors, which again, they cant. They will not be able to survive for long. If they dont believe, they will be be-littled by the believers and will be blamed for anything happening to the believers. No deaths are being questioned. No deaths have been subjected to further analysis. Even if it is subjected to further analysis by another doctor, what is the guarantee that the other doctor will be doing an ethical job of it. Hospitals are running out of beds. They are running out of oxygen. Let us not talk about ventillators. When the entire government machinery is busy chalking out the strategy to win an election, instead of the pandemic on hand, we know something is wrong the world is being run. Those who are near and dear to any human being only will be able to tell the damage, the pandemic has done. Those who have struggled to breathe will only tell the pain the pandemic has inflicted on an individual.

    So, the pandemic originates somewhere and spreads miraculously without anybody's knowledge. In the times of human wanting to go to the moon/Mars, without understanding the planet which they have inhabited for their entire lifetime, is a joke. The human kind is at crossroads. There is talk of universal basic income for every human being on the planet for workers and people who want to just while away their life. If it is all about printing money and sending it to every individual on the planet, it is very easy. However, all these people are to be fed. So, universal income depends on food available in plenty. We want to device methods of farming with minimum amount of water, so that potable water left on the planet can be used for human consumption. All these ideas boil down to one fact. 

    The "agrarian" industry is the most crucial one for the continued existence of man kind. It has to be kept out of multinationals and be kept as a family run enterprise and should be free for any individual to take up. It should be one industry which does not need any approvals. Water and air also were supposed to be kept out of reach of multinationals. However, we have lost it. The strategy used by multinationals to reach this situation is dangerous. Spoil all the pristine and natural sources of water and air. Now sell the same polluted water and air by commercializing the process of cleaning the damage which they themselves are responsible. The "agrarian" industry is taking the same path. Pollute the soil, pollute the minds of the farmer. The consumer's mind is already spoilt, We can ignore him here. Now, buy off all the land(water and air already owned) and then you have the complete planet under your control. First remove all the ingredients from the food and then add what is required based on the geographical location/caste/creed/class. We are nearly there.

    Coming back, the covid tests are a joke. There have been no improvements in the testing procedure. There have been no advancements in the treatments. Everybody is behind the vaccine. Mars missions and moon missions have been planned and executed. I dont feel the world wants to know the problem on hand. It just wants to go about its regular duties as though there is no pandemic. We surely can do away with the Mars/Moon missions. They can wait. They can perfect their mathematics.

    What has all this got to do with agriculture? Well, every living being has to eat. Food has to be grown. All the packed food needs the output from a farmer. The time is closer wherein, the super store racks will not have any packaged foods. The raw material for any edible item has to come mother earth. All governments, please leave the agrarian economy as is. Compile the experiences of yester year farmers. Combine it with just enough tech to ensure that the procedure is 100% sustainable. Not any lesser percentage. It can be done. There have been instances wherein individuals incorporating these older procedures have succeeded. Identify them and empower them. Now.

    When governments huddle together and discuss how to efficiently increase the capacity of mortuaries so that people who are dead will have a speedy ritual, there is something wrong. In all this where does a farmer stand? Is he important? In fact, is food important? Should we eat to survive?  It is high time the government supports innovation in this field. It is high time, the individual farmers start planning. It is high time the young farmers who have understood this concept educate the others than to get highlighted and stay so at the expense of other failures.

Saturday, April 3, 2021

Gluten cannot be digested by human stomach

Disclaimer: I am no doctor. This is not dietary advice. This is not a treatment schedule.

    Modern foods are made to appease and fool the human processing system. So, instead of using a tried and tested eating habits which has trickled down over humanities existence, the food shelves of these days are a far cry from the shelves of the yester years. The human digestive system is being fooled as the brain is being fooled. It is what the facebooks and googles are doing for the brain. Give more of what it wants. Every human brain is unique. 

     There will be preferences. But, then for the overall development of the human being there should be variety. Instead, these companies feed on the nature's most important rule, the rule of least resistance. Feed the least resistance path. So, what do you gain. Well, you get the attention of the brain. If you get the attention of the brain, you have the individual hook, line and sinker. The foods are going the same way. It is well understood that opioids are addicting more people than the addiction which the governments across the world are worried of. Just because opioids come in nice packages, with good printing and excellent colors, dont mean that they are doing any good. But designing food to do the same as these is criminal. Food is quintessential part of the life of a living being.

    It was shocking for me to know that we are not growing wheat as we used to in the good old days. ie, we have tampered with the "natural" variety of wheat which our previous generations have eaten. Instead we have edited out and added information in genome sequence which will yield wheat having more of the properties multinational business houses want. Not what humans want. It is very difficult to fathom the profit making prospects of these big businesses, or for that matter smaller businesses. By harming the health of the consumer, when profits are made, then it is a vicious cycle. The thing is these decisions are not made by one single business.

    The treatment business and the problem origination businesses are hand in hand. The treatment business can always come out against the food producing businesses highlighting the issues with such vociferous volume that the businesses will have to rethink their strategies. Alas, that is not happening. Both are running their own businesses. Both know they are feeding of each other and both in turn feed of the individuals. The most shocking truth about wheat is the gluten. The wheat originally grown by our past generations did not have this element in large quantities as of now. The genetic blue print of wheat is changed and edited by multinationals to include more gluten in the produce, in turn making "soft" "chewy" bread. Why did they do so? Why didnt the consumers worry about questioning this practice. Well, one answer is in the farmer producing it. He is now not worried about the storage of it. The multinationals have found huge markets for all his produce. They are resistant to insects. They can be stored for a longer time. 

    So, if there are any issues arising out of this gene editing, the treatment industry will take care of it and will survive. This methodology of doing business is the same as how cancer cells do business. These cells dont produce energy the "correct" and "efficient" way. They do it the wrong way. They suck in lot of inputs and produce very little amount of energy. This makes them sick in turn. As an extension many will die. But these dead cells stay there. They disrupt already wrongly made up blood cells. There it is you have the perfect example of a tumor. So, what does the present medical profession do about it? Well, they dont know. They keep trying all sorts of modern gimmickry. They try to go the way, the genetically modified food is produced. They think that they can start manipulating the cancer cells to start working like healthy cells by trying to edit the genetic material of cells which make up the cancer cells.

But, the human genome is not a joke. People dont know the repercussion of editing one portion of the gene and replacing it with a different chemical formula. The same applies to gene editing of wheat. Gene editing might have given us wheat which has more gluten. But, we dont know how this is going to affect in the "synergistic" point of view of the entire gene. Now, getting back to gluten, it is clear that the human stomach cannot digest gluten. So, it is passed on to the intestines. There starts the complications. If the complications are so clear, why should we continue eating it. I dont see any reason whatsoever. This should be a prime reason to reduce this protein. Let the chapatis crumble. Let the bread be a little hard. Let the bread by a different color than white. 

 

     The gluten free group is a bigger fad. They take up the same wheat produced with the maximum possible gluten in them and chemically try to remove the gluten in it. Now, nobody is telling exactly what all nutrients get removed by carrying out this process of removal of gluten. Like we exactly dont  know the total effects of editing the wheat gene to produce more gluton, we exactly dont know what this de-glutenising process results in. So, suit yourself

    What is this obsession of human beings with white. The obsession is that white is associated with purity. With this, you can pass the most impure substance on earth, until it is white. Why are we not eating food as we were eating just 20 - 30 years ago. It is not late. The human race has to make a decision. All farmers dont farm with good intentions in their mind. Majority of the farmers have gotten used to just putting the seeds and seeing them grow. They just want the yield. It is like earth is a machine. No, sir, it is not. So, how do we make the farmers understand this. Well, start supporting farmers who are doing the right thing. Farmers are very susceptible to success stories. Make a success story of one farmer with ethical practices, you will see that others will follow.

    I for one dont think that stopping eating wheat, is going to do any major issues with the human body. Consult your dietician and spell out your wish and definitely there will be a positive answer. What about ones who cannot afford a dietician. What about people who cannot afford anything other than wheat. This is a very tricky situation. The problem here is the person cannot afford the treatment for the issues in his food. He will consume what he can afford, not what is healthier for him. So, whom do you turn in these situations. God, or the government which does the job of God on its behalf. Ensure that the food is produced in the most traditional manner. Ensure that research happens to store food in its most pristine form instead of converting it to some non-nonsensical chemical formula. It is not that the human should be modified to eat this modified food. Ensure that the food is at its pristine level. Forget about making it look pleasing. Whoever wants to have such food, can create a demand and many producers will answer. Let us keep the poor people away from this since they dont have options. As for people with options, it is left to them to choose what is better for them.